Participatory District Development Programme (PDDP) is a follow-up to "Supporting Decentralisatsion in Nepal" (NEP/92/027), a NPC/UNDP project which worked primarily at the district-level to promote decentralised participatory development and to strengthen local governance in Nepal.

PDDP builds on the achievements of NEP/92/027 and consolidates, improves and institutionalises participatory planning and management of development activities starting at the community level to promote decentralised local development and sustainable human development.

PDDP seeks to empower people to take increasingly greater control over their own development and to enhance their capacities to mobilise and channel the resources required for poverty alleviation. PDDP works simultaneously at the local and central levels to achieve its twin objectives.

• At the micro level: PDDP provides support for improving the governance system and social empowerment process at the village level through the development of self- governing community institutions.

• At the meso level: PDDP provides support for the strengthening of development programming and management capabilities of the District Development Committees (DDCs).

• At the macro level: PDDP supports the National Planning Commission (NPC) and the Ministry of Local Development (MLD) to formulate policies that reflect and support local-level development initiatives.

PDDP is implemented in 30 districts. They are:

Ten of these districts—Achham, Baitadi, Banke, Chitwan, Dang, Kaski, Kavre, Nuwakot, Parbat and Rupandehi—also receive NORAD support. Likewise, the Decentralised Planning for the Child Programme (DPCP) supported by UNICEF is being implemented in seven PDDP-supported districts, namely— Achham, Chitwan, Dadeldhura, Dang, Kapilbastu, Kaski and Kavre, and UNCDF is supporting the implementation of its Local Development Fund (LDF) programme in four PDDP-supported districts—Achham, Kaski, Kavre and Rupandehi.

The people, local authorities (DDCs and VDCs), community organisations, line agencies and NGOs of the 30 districts along with NPCS, MLD and other line ministries are the beneficiaries of the Programme

PDDP supports the HMG/N to develop the capacities of the established decentralised governance structures to institutionalise participatory and sustainable process for management of local development initiatives and to enhance equitable access to development resources.

PDDP’s sphere of activities at the local and central levels in order to achieve its objectives include:

PDDP provides DDCs with management support to enhance local governance systems through enhanced capacities, information systems and participatory planning and monitoring systems.

Institutional Strengthening: The Programme supports the DDCs to strengthen their institutional and professional capacity to plan, monitor and coordinate various district-level development activities. To ensure that the DDCs are geared to cater to multi-sectoral people-centred development, the Programme offers technical support to the DDCs for the establishment of Programme Sections as well as Human Resource Development Unit into their organisational structure.

In order to facilitate the smooth functioning of their development activities, the Programme also introduces computerised accounting package and provides office equipment and various professional skill development training packages.

Information System: PDDP helps to establish an information system in order to enhance more informed and responsive decision-making among all stakeholders involved in decentralised participatory development planning and monitoring. This system aggregates development related data from the grass-roots level to the central level. It provides support to the DDCs for establishing Information Units equipped with comprehensive database and Geographical Information System (GIS) maps, so as to enhance coordination and flow of information among institutions working for local development.

Participatory Planning and Monitoring: PDDP assists the DDCs to implement a "trickle-up" planning and monitoring process, based on the principles of participation, transparent decision-making and coordination between political bodies, technical agencies, NGOs and the communities. This process documents people’s needs and the available resources at the grassroots and percolates it up through several prioritising layers to the district where they are incorporated into the District Development Plan. These Plans are then forwarded to the central level to be incorporated into the National Annual Plan to receive central funding.

Village Development through Social Mobilisation: This component is geared towards empowering rural Nepalis to rise above the poverty trap. It urges communities, both men and women, towards self-reliance and self- governance by encouraging them to group into broad-based, multipurpose community organisations (COs). Through institutional and economic development, these COs enhance their capacities to effectively plan and manage participatory and sustainable local development to enable them to uplift their living standard. In the process, they also transform themselves into self-governing institutions at the grassroots.

The Programme offers support to the DDCs to establish a district-level Local Trust Fund (LTF) to implement and expand the social mobilisation process in rural villages. The LTF supports these mobilised communities to undertake community-based micro-entrepreneurial activities of their choice, to develop their professional skill in specialised services, improve their access to market and technology, as well as providing support for the implementation of priority productive investments that provide common benefit to the community through Seed Grant Funds. Credit Capital forms the core part of LTF support, and can be accessed by the mature COs on the basis of social collateral. This is a revolving fund and it’s revolving nature is expected to sustain the Village Development Programme.

The COs work for the benefit of the entire community, giving first priority to the poor and oppressed. Once grouped into a broad-based organisation they rise above individualism and concentrate on collective actions that benefit the community at large.

Public Private Partnership: In order to coordinate and link the resources available in the private and public sectors and to strengthen the community level institutions by harnessing the potentials existing in the districts, PDDP promotes public-private partnership among DDCs, VDCs, private organisations, business community, NGOs and community-based organisations.

These partnerships focus on promoting rural investment and economic opportunities by tapping into the production capabilities of the rural communities, linking them to existing capital resources of the private sector and by exploiting existing market potentials.

Through such partnership the Programme aims to initiate and support the mobilization of the private sectors, producers, investors, marketers and other partners together with communities to form self-help institutions for the enhancement of local governance, rural investment and development.

Support to Micro & Macro Policies: PDDP offers a platform for the incorporation of vital sustainable human development (SHD) issues such as poverty alleviation, women’s development, environment management & employment generation. Through SHD Action Research and case studies, PDDP works with groups in civil society, VDCs, DDCs and the Central Agencies in efforts to help formulate policies in these SHD areas. Action Research on innovative methods and case studies of local development efforts assist the NPC and MLD to formulate and improve policy guidelines to promote sustainable human development and decentralized local development in Nepal.

PDDP will provide support to fast-track innovative provisions of the Local Self Governance Act, 1999, in three pilot districts. The support will be geared towards enhancing (a) the capacities of the DDCs to assume sectoral functions, and (b) internal revenue base through local taxation.

Human Resource Development: At the village level the Programme, through its VDP component, helps to enhance local skills and develop a cadre of village experts to make the community self-reliant. In order to mainstream the human resource development (HRD) process in the district and to cater to the need of local skill enhancement, PDDP helps the DDCs to become HRD focal points by helping them establish Human Resource Development Units.

PDDP also helps to develop and implement training packages on sustainable and participatory development and social mobilization approaches at the national and local levels. Through training programmes, seminars and publications, it orients professionals, programme staff, DDCs, VDCs, government officials, NGOs, political parties and the private sector on participatory development and decentralised local governance.

The Executing Agency for PDDP is NPCS. The MLD and UNOPS are cooperating agencies.

The Executive Committee with representatives from NPC, MLD, UNDP, NORAD, UNICEF, UNCDF, EU, SNV, DANIDA, the DDCs and the Associations of the DDCs, VDCs and Municipalities, is responsible for providing policy guidelines for programme implementation.

The Programme Management Committee with National Programme Directors and National Programme Coordinators from NPCS and MLD, a National Programme Manager from UNOPS and with representation of UNICEF, UNCDF and SNV, is responsible for implementing programme activities.

There are Sub-Regional Management Committees in every development region with representation from the NPC’s Regional Office and MLD’s Regional Directorate as well as the PDDP’s Sub-Regional Manager in the region. The Committee provide functional linkages between the Regional offices of NPC, MLD and the Programme activities and will help to provide technical backstopping and monitoring to the DDAs /DDCs of the region.

District Management Committee consisting of the DDC Chairperson, the Local Development Officer from MLD, and a District Development Advisor from UNOPS, is responsible for managing and coordinating decentralised operations of the individual district-level activities.

November 1995 to December 2001

UNDP; NORAD